A torrent of misinformation is flooding social media as escalating tensions between India and Pakistan raise fears of a major military conflict in South Asia.
Mislabelled videos, recycled images and fake public advisories are taking over the information landscape, leaving hundreds of millions of anxious observers in a lurch over what to believe.
Fact-checkers, government agencies and digital forensics experts have been working around the clock since the early hours of 7 May to debunk a deluge of viral content being posted in the wake of India’s missile strikes on Pakistan.
Key pieces of misinformation include fake photos and videos circulated as footage from the airstrikes and unverified claims and counterclaims from the governments of the nuclear-armed neighbours.
Several news channels and journalists have fallen for fake videos and claims, amplifying unconfirmed information at a time when cross-border attacks and shelling, mock drills, and sirens blasted from loudspeakers are causing mass panic.
One of the most widely circulated videos – depicting missiles streaking across the night sky – was aired by multiple Indian news channels that claimed it showed Indian strikes in Bahawalpur. However, factchecker Alt News reported the footage was from an Israeli airstrike on Gaza in October 2023.
A reverse image search traced the clip to a Sputnik Armenia report of 13 October 2023. BBC Verify also confirmed that the video had nothing to do with the South Asian conflict.
Prominent Indian and Pakistani journalists amplified the mislabelled clip on X, with captions suggesting it showed the strike in Bahawalpur.
Alt News, which has debunked dozens of similar false claims over the last two days, said this was a “clear-cut case of recycled footage misrepresented as breaking news”.
Amid claims of Indian drone attacks on Thursday in Pakistan, an old video from the Texas fires began doing the rounds on X, only to be debunked by factcheckers.
Other false claims used AI imagery or visuals pulled from conflicts in Gaza or Ukraine. One set of images purporting to show the strikes turned out to be from a YouTube simulation.
Unverified claims and counterclaims have also left people confused as each country has sought to shape the narrative in its favour.
False stories from the Pakistani side have included an alleged airstrike on the Srinagar airbase and the destruction of an Indian army brigade headquarters.
India’s Press Information Bureau said the supposed video from Srinagar actually showed sectarian clashes in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from early 2024.
Reporters and local residents also confirmed that there was no sign of an attack at the airbase in the restive Kashmir region.
“There has been a marked spike in misinformation since 3am on 7 May,” a Press Information Bureau official told Hindustan Times. “We are working 24/7 to counter each falsehood.”
A 37-second clip showing smoke, fire and gunfire was widely shared on 7 May as supposed footage of Pakistan’s retaliation to the Indian strikes, with claims ranging from downed Indian jets to a blown-up brigade HQ. However, Alt News confirmed the video predated the strikes and had been circulating online since at least 27 April.
Another widely shared clip, claiming to show Pakistani jets striking Indian territory, was revealed to be footage from the video game Battlefield 3. Some posts even repurposed images from unrelated Indian air force crashes in 2021 and 2024.
Other viral online clips, including one from the 2020 Beirut port explosion, were being misrepresented as evidence of Pakistani retaliation.
In the absence of official footage and confirmation, confusion has persisted over claims about downed Indian jets, including a French-made Rafale.
India has denied losing any aircraft, although The Independent has captured video showing debris at the scene of one apparent crash. French intelligence told CNN it had verified that at least one Rafale was lost based on visuals from the ground. Pakistan, meanwhile, has continued to assert that it successfully responded to the strikes by downing as many as five Indian jets, and claimed it could have shot down even more.
On Thursday, Pakistan's military claimed to have downed 25 Indian drones targeting major urban centres, including Lahore and Karachi. Indian officials did not comment on this claim directly but said air defence systems in Pakistan were targeted.
The Indian government flagged another piece of misinformation – a fake advisory circulating online that appeared to mimic civil defence protocols, urging citizens to stock up on food and medicines. The advisory was not issued by any government agency. The Press Information Bureau labelled it “FAKE” and urged citizens to trust only official sources for updates about the military operation.
It also cautioned against “Pakistan-linked accounts” attempting to “flood the information space with falsehoods so quickly and overwhelmingly that it becomes difficult to separate fact from fiction”.
As of Thursday, the bureau’s factcheck unit had issued at least 21 public clarifications. Factcheckers continued to warn that in a highly polarised environment, recycled content and AI fakes were now central to information warfare.
“Algorithmic engagement rewards dramatic content over accurate content,” Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins told BBC Verify. “Old footage from unrelated wars is often used to provoke emotional reactions.”
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